Comics & Machines (COMA 2026)

Conference Schedule

22–23 April 2026 — KTH Stockholm & Uppsala University

Day One — Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm

Wednesday, 22 April 2026

09:30
Registration & Welcome Coffee
10:00
Session 1
  • "Visual Rationality and Diagrammatic Modernity" Katharina Steidl — Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
  • "Print and Cognition at the Biological Computer Lab, 1958–1976" Kevin Hamilton — University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • "Atlas Comicus: On Mapping Production and Seriality" Mathieu Li-Goyette — University of Amsterdam
  • Q&A
11:00
— Break —
11:15
Session 2
  • "Comics as By-Product" David Mitchell — Independent
  • "Indian Comics with a CPU: How Chacha Chaudhary Runs on Logic, Loops, and Local Knowledge" Shweta Gupta — IGNOU, India Online
  • Q&A
12:30
— Lunch —
13:00
Session 3
  • "When Comics Chat: A Deep Prior for Text-Balloon Reading Order" Ioannis Siglidis — Pioneer Center for AI, Copenhagen
  • "Comics Pages as Audit Devices for Generative AI: A Gutter/Ghost Framework" Andrea Tosti — Lancaster University
  • "Image GenAI and Writing Morphologies" Simon Grennan
  • Q&A
14:00
Session 4
  • "Computational Contact Sheets: Synthetic Photography and the Shifting Technical Identity of Comics" Abdelalim Amine Slimani — Independent Artist
  • "Whitewash Cartoonization: Accidental Indexicality into Cartoon Space?" Eyal Gruss — Holon Institute of Technology Online
  • Q&A
14:45
— Break —
15:00
Session 5
  • "A Practitioner-Researcher's Self-Reflective Reflection on the Role of Digital Drawing Tools Used for Comics-Based Research" Yiqi Zhang — London College of Communication, UAL
  • "The Plotted Narrative: Friction, Code, and Materiality in Computational Comics" A.B Fominaya — Carnegie Mellon University
  • "Riso Comics – Creating Narratives in Dialogue with the Machine" Gunnar Krantz — Malmö University
  • Q&A

Day Two — Uppsala University

Thursday, 23 April 2026

09:30
Session 6
  • "Speculative Autoethnography Through Comics: Reversing Big Tech's Gaze and Reclaiming the Story" Maria Ryabova — University of Pittsburgh
  • "Against the Algos: How Swedish Comic Artists Navigate an Uncertain and Evolving Labor Market in the Age of Digitalization" Robert Aman & Erik Nylander — Linköping University
  • Q&A
10:15
Session 7
  • "Comics and/as Mechanics: Intersections between Comics, Zines and Games" Hailey J Austin — Abertay University
  • "Digital Handmade: Towards a Media Archeology of Graphic Tablets and Software in Comics Drawing" Giorgio Busi Rizzi & Claudia Cerulo — Ghent University / Università Mercatorum
  • Q&A
11:00
— Break —
11:15
Session 8
  • "We Have Always Been Sequential: Comics as Experimental Methodology for Language-Based Artistic Research" Thomas Ballhausen & Elena Peytchinska — University Mozarteum Salzburg / University of Applied Arts Vienna
  • "Drawing in the Glow of Generative Machines: Comics as Research Method for Speculative Futures" Lucy Perineau, Deborah Lambert & Aurore Fransolet — Université de Poitiers / Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Université libre de Bruxelles
  • "Monsters, Mercenaries and Me: Comics Research as Plaited Exegesis" Ray Whitcher — Uppsala University
  • Q&A
12:15
— Lunch —
13:00
Session 9
  • "Stretching the Tension: Alternative Comic as a Disobedient Machine" Sabine Teyssonneyre — Université de Poitiers Online
  • "Comparative Analysis of the Uses of AI in Comics between the Two Spheres of Production" Björn-Olav Dozo — University of Liège
  • "Metaphorical Comics at the Interface of AI and Mental Health: Toward Patient-Centered Visual Expression" Jiahao Ji & Jingyao Cai — Kingston University
  • Q&A
14:00
Session 10
  • "Digital Handmade: Towards a Media Archeology of Graphic Tablets and Software in Comics Drawing" Giorgio Busi Rizzi & Claudia Cerulo — Ghent University / Università Mercatorum
  • "Spatial Practice in Comics at the Era of GenAI, VSI and Mixed Realities" Gaëtan Le Coarer Online
  • Q&A
14:45
— Break —
15:15
Closing Plenary
Closing Plenary